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It seems a bit strange to wait until the day before launch to announce something like this, but the first two of The Division’s paid DLC packs – Underground and Survival – will have a 30-day exclusivity period on Xbox One.
The Division might be out tomorrow, but there’s plenty more to come in our list of upcoming PC games.
Starting from the already announced launch dates for The Division’s first two DLCpacks, PC players will have to wait 30 days for them to be available, because Xbox One players will be getting their filthy console-playing mitts all over New York’s tunnel network first.
Why Ubisoft waited until now to reveal this information I don’t know. You’d think it would be announced a bit more in advance – you know, so players who wanted to opt in for early DLC access could’ve pre-ordered the Xbox One version.
I honestly don’t mind waiting an extra while for some DLC – at least we’ll know if it’s good or not by the time we get hold of it – but it would have been nice for people to make an informed buying decision.
If you’re looking for more info on The Division ahead of tomorrow’s launch, data miners have picked through the game’s files and uncovered mission count, weapons and other spoilerific secrets.


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Sony has today announced that its computing division, Vaio, will be sold in order to focus on other divisions, such as tablets and smartphones, to recuperate substantial projected losses for this year. In the business of making computers since 1982, the Vaio division is blamed for company losses of more than £600 million (almost $1 billion), despite the huge success of Xperia and PlayStation products.
The Xperia Experience
Sony’s computers, especially the Vaio range, have never formed any part of the gaming market, despite some pretty decent builds and specifications. So whilst this is sad news, it’s not going to affect gamers whatsoever.
But with the success of Xperia phones and tablets, and the introduction of PlayStation Mobile, the move to divert resources towards mobile products gives Sony a prime opportunity to increase their presence in mobile gaming.
With games like Puzzle and Dragons and Flappy Bird causing as much buzz with gamers as AAA titles like Grand Theft Auto V, Sony may well be looking to diversify their gaming outreach. As industry opinion is that gaming is becoming more mobile, Sony really have the opportunity to capitalise upon this. It’ll be interesting to see what bigger role, if any, gaming on Sony’s Xperia products will play in the near future.

domain: news


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Following the news that the Game Developers Conference had been postponed to later this year, Microsoft announced a series of online events this week to discuss its latest game technologies for developers. There’s first the Game Stack Live event that will be streamed on Mixer starting today at 10 AM PDT, but the Microsoft DirectX team will follow up with a separate DirectX Developer Day on March 19.
“The Microsoft DirectX team, along with partners from AMD and NVIDIA, will be streaming a series of talks covering how we’re pushing gaming graphics into the future, introducing exciting new features, showing never-before-seen demos, and doing a deep dive into both PIX and our shader compiler,” the team said today. The event will kick off on 10AM PDT on mixer.com/DirectX, and the team will answer live questions in the Mixer chat.
We’ll likely hear more about DirectX Raytracing during the event and its role on gaming PCs and the upcoming Xbox Series X. Microsoft confirmed that its next-gen Xbox console will support hardware-accelerated DirectX Raytracing, and Microsoft showed yesterday how the technology will be able to enhance existing games like Minecraft or Gears 5.


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NEW YORK (AP) — Colgate-Palmolive, stung by higher costs, saw fourth-quarter net income decline more than 5 percent but said Thursday that it had raised prices in North America for the first time in two and a half years.
Raising prices has been risky for consumer products companies like Colgate, with cash-strapped consumers more ready than ever to drop even their favorite brands to save a few cents. Paychecks are already stretched thin and the government's most recent data on jobs, also released Thursday, show that the number of people seeking unemployment benefits rose last week
In recent months, Colgate has taken a pricing strategy that's differed from some of its competitors: It's been raising prices in fast-growing Latin America, where customers seem willing to stomach the higher costs, but lowering prices in North America through discounts and other promotions.
There are signs that the economy is healing, but raising prices in North America has been something that Colgate, until recently, has been unwilling to try.
Since the third quarter of 2009, Colgate has consistently cut North American prices, by an average of 1.5 percent to 4.5 percent each quarter. It has apparently snapped that trend, saying Thursday that it raised North American prices by 0.5 percent in the latest quarter.
That may be because the company thinks it can, or that it must, or perhaps a little bit of both. But Colgate is aggressively seeking to protect market share, even if it has to spend to do it.
"As we enter 2012, macroeconomic conditions and foreign exchange volatility are an increasing challenge," said President and CEO Ian Cook. "Despite that, we are planning to improve our worldwide market shares and volume growth with increased advertising."
For the quarter, Colgate made $590 million, or $1.21 per share. That was down from $624 million, or $1.24 per share, last year.
Excluding one-time expenses like putting cost-saving plans into place and other charges, Colgate earned $1.30 per share. That beat the $1.29 that Wall Street had been looking for, according to a poll by FactSet.
Revenue was $4.17 billion, up from $3.98 billion during the same period last year.
For the year, revenue increased 7.5 percent and net income rose 10 percent.
Shares of Colgate-Palmolive Co. rose more than 2 percent, or $2.04, to $91.48 in early trading.
The decision to try to recoup its margins comes during a fragile time for the U.S. economy.
The jobs data released Thursday show more people sought unemployment benefits. However, the overall trends point to a recovering job market. At least 100,000 jobs have been added for six straight months and the unemployment rate has declined to 8.5 percent, its lowest in almost three years.
But it's not a healthy number yet and the government also released data Thursday showing that fewer people bought homes in December, sealing 2011 as the worst year for home sales on record.
Colgate does have something of a buffer against hard times. Many customers will stick to things like name-brand toothpaste when money is tight, even if they do trade down in other products.
Overall, Colgate raised prices 3 percent, which helped fuel a 5 percent increase in revenue. But at the same time, the company recorded a 9 percent increase in the cost of making and transporting its goods. As Colgate paid more for raw materials, profit margins fell 1.7 percentage points.
The company has slashed some expenses to try to offset those costs.
"Our continued sharp focus on cost-saving programs in all areas of the business enabled us to achieve full year gross profit margin at the high end of our forecasted range, while also lowering overheads as a percentage of sales," Cook said.
And Colgate is increasingly relying on foreign markets to fuel growth. Of Colgate's four main geographic regions, North America accounts for the smallest portion and it is where revenue grew the slowest. Latin America grew the fastest, and made up the biggest portion of revenue.


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Mahindra is currently working on many next-generation SUVs for the Indian market. While we have already seen the all-new Thar testing under a heavy camouflage on the Indian roads, Mahindra is also working on the all-new Scorpio and all-new XUV 500. The brand recently launched the all-new Marazzo, all-new Alturas G4 and the all-new XUV 300 in the market. However, the future SUVs from Mahindra will get a brand-new, 2.0-litre diesel engine that is currently under development. This engine will make 160 BHP on the new Scorpio.
Mahindra is going to update the existing line-up to meet with the upcoming norms in the Indian markets. Indian market will soon get the Bharat New Vehicle Safety Assesment Program (BNVSAP), which will ensure that all the vehicles launched in the Indian market meet the safety parameters. Next year, the Indian market will get new BS-VI emission norms. The new emission norms will skip one whole generation and will directly jump to the BS-VI levels from the current BS-IV levels. To meet the new emission norms, Mahindra is developing an all-new diesel engine that will power the future Mahindra cars.
New details on ACI reveal that the all-new 2.0-litre engine will be available in three states of tune and it will replace the current 2.2-litre mHawk diesel engine from the market. The mid-spec variant, which will develop around 160 Bhp of maximum power will power the next-generation Mahindra Scorpio. It will be much more powerful than the current generation Mahindra Scorpio. Mahindra offers the 2.2-litre mHawk in 120 Bhp and 140 Bhp versions with the Scorpio. Mahindra XUV 500 gets 155 Bhp of power.
It is not yet known which vehicle will be launched first between the next-generation Scorpio and the all-new XUV 500 in the Indian market but most likely Mahindra will first launch the all-new Scorpio. The all-new 2.0-litre engine will also produce more torque but the exact figure is not known. Currently, the 2.2-litre generates a maximum torque of 320 Nm. Mahindra is expected to offer a 6-speed manual transmission with the upcoming Scorpio but there are strong chances that automatic version will be launched with the next-generation Scorpio. The demand for automatics have risen over time and Mahindra is expected to address that.
The all-new Scorpio is expected to carry the same butch image and the development of the vehicle has already started. It gets the codename Z101 and will be developed in Mahindra’s North American Technical Centre. It is the same centre that also conceptualised and design the Mahindra Marazzo. The new Scorpio will carry forward its iconic shape and is expected to become lighter in weight. Even the all-new 2.0-litre engine will shed as much as 80 kg of weight due to the all-aluminium construction.
The all-new Mahindra Scorpio is expected to be launch next year in the Indian market. Before that the all-new Mahindra Thar might launch in the market as it has already started the road testing. Even the Mahindra Thar is expected to get the all-new 2.0-litre engine but it will produce lower power than the Scorpio. It should be noted that even upcoming Mahindra XUV 500 will get the all-new 2.0-litre engine.


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Basics Beware: We’re All Girl Bosses Now
Via:Rachel Hills, The Daily Beast.
Twentysomething women have turned the boss into an icon, the ultimate position to have dreams and then make them happen. But in doing so, are they selling themselves short?
By: Rachel Hills, The Daily Beast
08.28.14 4:45 AM ET
Alex Hayden Hernandez decided she wanted to be an entrepreneur when she was 14 years old, after she stumbled on a girl her age on MySpace who had made more than $1 million running an online business. “I remember sitting at my computer thinking, oh my god,” she recalls. “She had bought her parents a house.”
From that moment on, Hernandez never considered getting a conventional job. When she graduated from high school, she made her money selling candles online. Then she tried being a health coach, and, after that, a social media consultant. Today, Hernandez’s business is business itself.
Hernandez, 22, is the creator of #bossbabe, a made-for-social-media meme turned online community promoting entrepreneurship to millennial women. Since launching less than three months ago, the project has amassed more than 16,000 followers on Instagram, most of them women aged in their late teens and early 20s. Followers are treated to daily motivational quotes such as “I love the smell of fresh ambition in the morning” and “Don’t ask yourself ‘Why you?’ Ask yourself, ‘Why the f*ck not you?’”, superimposed over images of pop cultural figures such as Beyonce, Nikki Minaj, and Rihanna.
Being a #bossbabe, says Hernandez, is all about attitude. “It’s not a status, it’s not a network. It’s a mentality,” she explains. “A #bossbabe is the girl in the room who has the biggest dream, and the minute she voices it, everyone laughs and thinks she’s crazy. But what makes her a #bossbabe is that she stands by her dreams.
She is a girl who sticks [to] her goals.” The #bossbabe is the counterpoint to another female figure who currently looms large in both the popular vernacular and Hernandez’s Instagram account: the basic, whom Hernandez describes as a girl “who has been so scarred by society that she has no dreams of her own.”
If the #bossbabe sounds familiar, that’s because she is. On Kickstarter, Brooklyn filmmaker Erin Bagwell is raising funds for Dream, Girl, a documentary about female founders and entrepreneurs, which has been featured on Fox Business and Elle.com. Then there’s Nasty Gal CEO Sophia Amoruso, whose best-selling memoir-slash-advice book #GIRLBOSS is a forerunner to the #bossbabe in everything from its pale pink design to its hashtag title. Last week, Amoruso announced the launch of her new #GIRLBOSS Foundation, which will award financial grants to women in the worlds of design, fashion, music, and the arts.
Collectively, these young women are making entrepreneurship not just aspirational, but a little bit edgy. While Facebook COO and Lean In guru Sheryl Sandberg urged teachers to “ban bossy,” they embrace the label “boss” wholeheartedly. Nor does the #bossbabe suffer from any “confidence gap.” To the contrary—she is legitimately fierce. “It’s okay. Be humble. Because they already know you’re the sh*t,” reads one pithy quote on Hernandez’s Instagram.
The #bossbabe is a feminist in the sense that she believes men and women should be equal, but she is not interested in talking gender politics. “I believe the best way to honor the past and future of women’s rights is by getting shit done,” Amoruso writes in #GIRLBOSS. But more than feminism, what she embraces is entrepreneurship as a path to individual self-fulfillment; a means through which young women can exercise agency and make their mark on the world. And if you happen to make a quarter of a billion dollars along the way—as Amoruso has—all the better.
“I like the risk-and-reward factor of entrepreneurship,” Bagwell, 27, explains. “I like being in charge and it’s not something I feel is a bad thing. I love being surrounded by one hundred different things going on. It’s really fun, and it gives me a lot of energy.”
This push toward entrepreneurship is not surprising, says writer Kathleen Geier, who is co-organizing a conference on women’s work issues for political magazine The Baffler on September 13. “The economic downturn has diminished economic opportunities for everyone, especially twentysomethings. So this idea of starting your own business, and being your own boss, must sound very appealing. If there aren’t any real jobs available, it’s understandable that people would want to create their own.”
For most people who were born after 1980, there has never been such a thing as a “job for life.” Children of Reagan and Thatcher, we came of age in an era of chronic instability, where the most exciting opportunities available to us were often the ones that we created ourselves. According to the Freelancers Union, nearly one in three working Americans is now self-employed. For those born after 1990, the contrast is even starker—it’s not just a matter of no stable jobs, but in many cases, of no jobs period.
But the upsurge in entrepreneurship isn’t just a reflection of what millennial women are pushed to do. It is also a reflection of what they are pulled to do. And the flipside of neoliberalism’s freefall is the sense that anything is possible. That if you just grab hold of the right ropes and have the strength and strategic know-how to leverage yourself upwards, you will be rewarded with limitless opportunities.
This may sound like a fantasy—and in many ways, it is—but thanks to social media, it is one that it is increasingly grounded in reality. “I feel like we are now living in a time where whatever your gifts are, whatever your passion is, you can take your gift and give it and make a living off it and monetize that,” says Hernandez.
And that’s not only true for outliers like Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg or teen prodigy Tavi Gevinson. It was on the Internet that Amoruso turned her love of vintage clothing into a successful business. It was on the Internet that Hernandez launched each of her businesses. And it is the Internet that is allowing Bagwell to independently produce her documentary, without the backing of investors or a studio.
Despite this—and despite the proliferation of self-directed women in popular culture at this moment—there is still a sense among young women that being powerful means presenting yourself in a particular way. Hernandez wasn’t just inspired to create #bossbabe because she loved business, but also because she felt a conflict between her entrepreneurial aspirations and the way she wanted to present herself. “I like long nails and big hoop earrings,” she says. “I love to wear big hair and weaves. I have this type of fashion sense that clashes with what we think of when we think of a businesswoman.” The tagline for Bagwell’s Dream, Girl, meanwhile, is “redefining what it means to be a boss.”
In part, that process of redefinition is a matter of popularizing images of the boss as a woman, says Bagwell, who gained much of her early entrepreneurial education through reading books by business leaders such as Steve Jobs and Tony Hsieh from Zappos. But it is also a question of altering what a female boss is permitted to look like, and challenging the muted professionalism of Baby Boomer and Gen X leaders like Hillary Clinton and Sheryl Sandberg.
I want to hear your thoughts! xoxo


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CLEVELAND — This week, Market Garden Brewery reached an agreement with NWO Beverage to begin distribution of its GABF award-winning beers in the Toledo and Northwestern Ohio region. While Market Garden has seen double digit growth every year since its launch into retail distribution in 2016, this marks its first new territory opened since entering Columbus in January 2017. According to Co-Founder Michael Foran, “Our growth has been tremendous in Cleveland and Columbus. My focus for the organization has always been to make sure we provide exemplary beer and attention to these markets first and foremost before expanding into subsequent markets.”
Coming to a decision on a new distribution partner was a process that was not taken lightly by Foran and team; “I vetted several distributor options for this next big step and felt both comfortable and confident with NWO Beverage having successfully operated in that region for years on both a macro and craft level. PJ Sullivan’s team is well seasoned to take on our brand and run with it.”
Founded as a taproom and brewpub in 2011 with Brewmaster and Co-Founder Andy Tveekrem (formerly of Great Lakes Brewery and Dogfish Head fame) at the brewing helm, MGB has seen their short term capacity stretched to its limit throughout 2019, a year where they should reach 8000 barrels. Foran highlighted that this year he put the focus on making operational changes to its long term capacity to enable further scaling to not only manage the existing growth trajectory but also for new market entry.
“While we have taken the steady growth approach to dig deeper every year in our existing footprint, on the heels of another great GABF award I felt the peripheral demand was just too great to ignore,” said Foran. “Additionally being closer to the Detroit and Ann Arbor markets makes sense as we have a growing fan base and demand in those areas.”
Prosperity Wheat, Tveekrem’s pride and joy and the #1 overall volume brand for Market Garden, took home the Gold as America’s Best Hefeweizen last month at Great American Beer Festival; considered the top honor in the beer industry. “To win at GABF is always such an honor but do to so with your #1 brand and in a category as competitive as Hefeweizen enables us to leverage that win every single day,” Foran commented.
A mix of the core bottled and can every day brands like Prosperity Wheat, Citramax IPA as well as seasonal offerings such as the runaway cult favorite Festivus Holiday Ale will hit the Toledo market the week of November 4th.


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Topshop purchase 25% of OzSale
Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia Group has taken a 25% position in Australian online retailing company mysale.com, which operates the online flash fashion sale site OzSale in Australia. The site sells branded menswear, ladies fashions and children’s clothing and accessories, as well as beauty and house-ware products.
MySale has websites up and running in Australia, under the name OzSale.com, New Zealand, Singapore and Thailand.
It is opening up in America shortly as well under the name MySale and intends to have a website operating in Britain as well by the summer. So far MySale.com claims altogether about ten million members.MySale’s founders are ex-Brits Carl and Jamie Jackson who started the company in Australia back in 2007. Today the brothers still hold a majority position in the company, which holds dozens of flash sales every day selling off cheap inventories of other people’s excess products, usually bought up for the purpose at a huge discount – just like the local high-street discount stores used to do.
MySale achieved sales of about US$160 million in its last financial year to June 30th, 2013 and sales so far this year are said to be up about 40%.
Part of the potential attraction of the business is its “reverse cyclicality” as it aims to acquire inventories from, e.g. a British retailer with excess stock at the end of a season, hoping to then to sell it to shoppers in Australia who are just about to enter the same season.
Of course this assumes that fashion trends down-under are perpetually trending behind the latest fashions in Europe, which may be optimistic given the free information exchange everyone now has because of the internet. Sir Philip Green seems to buy in however, saying the company is in a “very, very interesting space. I like the business model, and the reverse season.”
Billionaire Sir Philip has apparently also entered into agreements to sell some of his own excess inventories from his Topshop, Miss Selfridge and Wallis brands according to The Financial Times for disposal using the company’s flash sales.
The terms of the transaction with Arcadia have not been announced. MySale will also be moving its head office to the UK, purportedly to become closer to its supply chain, but it certainly won’t hurt if it should be planning an IPO in London some time down the road as well.


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Chocolate maker Hershey lowered its earnings growth outlook for fiscal 2007, citing higher dairy input costs.
The company said it now expects a 4% to 6% growth in earnings from operations in 2007, compared with a prior forecast of 7% to 9% earnings growth.
On a per share basis, the company expects 2007 earnings from continuing operations of $2.46 to $2.51, on net sales growth of 3% to 4%.
Analysts on average have forecast 2007 earnings of $2.54, on revenue of $5.10 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.
Hershey said earnings from operations are expected to be 34 cents to 35 cents in the second quarter. Wall Street expects the company to earn 43 cents a share.
In 2007, the Company expects to record charges of about $270 million to $300 million, or 75 cents to 84 cents a share.
Hershey's said its long-term expectations of net sales growth of 3 to 4% and earnings growth from continuing operations of 9 to 11%, remain unchanged.


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US technology giant Amazon has unveiled plans to create 1,000 full-time apprenticeships in the UK by 2021.
Applications for the new apprenticeships open on March 4, 2019. Successful applicants will be paid anywhere between £9.50/£10.50 an hour, up to £30,000 a year.
The apprenticeships will consist of nine different programmes lasting between 13 months and four years. They will cover roles in IT, safety and HR, through to software engineering, robotics, leadership and technology.
The US etailer said over 90 new Amazon bachelor and masters degree-level apprentices will also be available over the next two years as part of the programme. These will focus on software development engineering, senior leadership and automation.
Amazon said 20 per cent of the new apprenticeships will be offered exclusively to its existing workforce, which would provide “a route from working on the shop floor through to working on cutting-edge software development, robotics technology and senior leadership roles in the business”.
Amazon UK country manager Doug Gurr said: “Our fully funded apprenticeship programme, from entry level through to degree level, will provide an exciting path to becoming Amazon’s future team leaders, engineers and innovation drivers.”
The news comes as Amazon continues to increase its investment in the UK.
Last October, it unveiled ambitions to bolster its research and development teams across the UK by opening a corporate office in Manchester employing 600 people.
As part of that announcement, the company said it would also expand its research and development centres in Edinburgh and Cambridge, adding 250 and 180 new roles respectively.


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Diablo III Sets PC Launch Record
Despite a shaky launch, Diablo III has managed to shatter PC sales records. Within the first twenty four hours of the game’s release, more than 3.5 million copies had be sold, which sets Diablo III as the record holder for fastest-selling PC game of all time. That’s quite impressive, especially when this number doesn’t even factor in the 1.2 million players who received Diablo III for free by signing up for a World of Warcraft Annual Pass.
As of now, Diablo III has sold over 6.3 million copies.
Mike Morhaime, CEO and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment, expressed his joy at these figures while apologizing for some of the technical issues:
“We’re definitely thrilled that so many people around the world were excited to pick up their copy of Diablo III and jump in the moment it went live. We also regret that our preparations were not enough to ensure everyone had a seamless experience when they did so. I want to reaffirm our commitment to make sure the millions of Diablo III players out there have a great experience with the game moving forward, and I also want to thank them for their ongoing support.”
By Angelo M. D'Argenio


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Come on Down! Loyalize Launches Audience Participation Tools
Loyalize launched today to help broadcasters and live event organizers offer mobile apps to get watchers and attendees to check in, play games and win rewards. The San Francisco-based company already has a deal with Motorola for its SocialTV service that was announced last week. Loyalize extends social TV apps like GetGlue to live events, making it sound similar to a white-label version of Hot Potato, the small event-focused community app Facebook bought last year. Facebook also recently added functionality that allows users to check in to events.


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Subscribers to The Guardian in the UK recently received a message of appreciation from the Editor-in-Chief, Katherine Viner. She announced that after a three-year “turnaround” strategy the newspaper had hit its goal of breaking even – making a small profit that has been ploughed back into supporting their journalism.
That one of the world’s most respected media outlets is struggling to pay for its journalism, is telling. It is not supported by a billionaire owner, but forms part of a British media company, The Scott Trust, “whose core purpose is to ensure the financial and editorial independence of the Guardian in perpetuity”.
But certainly, the financial challenge is not won. As Viner states:
“Three years ago we faced a very different situation, when a broken business model for news was threatening to destroy media organisations around the world: print advertising was collapsing, newspaper sales were declining, and the promise of digital advertising growth was going almost entirely to Google and Facebook. These threats still exist, and while we’ve found a way to counter them, the situation remains fragile.”
When digital media came on the scene, some thought it would “solve” the problem of media monopolies, would ensure diversity of information, and even a diversity of funding for each media outlet. The potential is still there, but the reality is that the lower cost of setting up digital communications led to more media outlets which meant advertising prices fell. Many media outlets became desperate to attract readership.
Compounding the pressures, as Viner mentions, the revenue traditional media gained particularly from advertising has been massively diverted to a few tech companies.
For the first nine months of 2018, Google businesses (including, for example, Chrome, Android OS, YouTube, Google Maps) generated USD 97.1 billion in revenue. Advertising revenue made up 85% of that. For Facebook (which also owns Whatsapp and Instagram), of the USD 40.65 billion in revenue in 2017, advertisements contributed 98%.
Many struggling media outlets have in turn been susceptible to “media capture” – taken over by powerful corporate and political interests that then control the information and tone of the news.
Many are involved directly in community media, which in this context are even more essential. But we also need to be savvy media consumers and be willing to support, in whatever way we can, media organisations that stand for high quality, independent journalism.


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All New TomTom GO Puts Drivers Back On The Map
~ New map-centric interface puts drivers back in control ~
TomTom sets a new standard in navigation with the launch of the all new TomTom GO. TomTom has completely re-designed the Portable Navigation Device (PND) to put drivers back in control of their drive. A brand new Interactive Map, Lifetime TomTom Traffic and 3D Maps give drivers the ability to know precisely what is going on around them, as well as what lies up ahead.


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Economic growth has slowed down sharply in the USA with consumer spending at its weakest level in two years. Growth in the USA was 0.4% between January and June 2011 with the USA’s economy growing at an annual rate of just 1.3% between April and June compared with 2.3% for the last quarter of 2010. Also the total loss of economic output in the 2007-2009 recession is now thought to have been 4.1%.This data has caused shares to fall with the Dow Jones falling by 130 points and the FTSE 100 index down 84 points to 5789.
Nick Parsons head of research UK and Europe and global of FX National Australia Bank says ‘‘It is hard to conclude other than that the US economy is in deep trouble’’ with ‘‘A very weak labour market, falling real incomes and house prices are hardly the basis for a sharp pickup in growth through the summer months and when a compromise agreement over the debt ceiling is finally reached, it is sure to contain measures to reduce the growth of government spending’’. Economists have said the data could prompt the Federal Reserve to restart its Quantitative Easing (QE) programme to put more money into the economy.
James Knightley Senior Economist at ING has said ‘‘the recession was deeper and started earlier than previously thought. This further reduces the prospect of any Fed policy tightening and offers some support to those arguing the case for QE3’’, the USA’s economy contracted by 0.3% in 2008 and in 2009 by 3.5%, if the current rate of unemployment of 9.2% is to be reduced the USA needs a growth rate of at least 2.5%.‘‘At the time, we were thinking that the numbers weren't as bad as what we seeing’’. Carl Riccadonna an economist at Deutsche Bank in New York says ‘‘Now we know that the recession was deeper than we thought’’ the contraction in real terms was 5.1%.


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In an effort to reach out to the Pune Travel and Tourism market, Jammu and Kashmir Tourism is organizing an exclusive event for the travel agents and tour operators to showcase the tourist attractions of the region and to invite holidaymakers to visit the UT. The event is being held in Pune concurrently during the participation of Jammu & Kashmir Tourism at the ‘India International Travel Mart’, being held in the city from the 26 – 28 November at the Deccan College Grounds, Yerawada.
The event shall consist of a detailed presentation, various short films on known and off-beat destinations of Jammu and Kashmir and the floating luxury, the Grand Kashmiri Houseboats.
Buoyed by the encouraging rush of tourists currently, the department has kick-started extensive winter tourism promotional campaigns across major cities of the country. After the second wave of Covid 19, the department has intensified its promotional campaign and has organised several grand events recently which includes the week-long Iconic festivals which included the houseboat festival which was inaugurated by the Hon’ble Home Minister Shri Amit Shah. Besides the Department has taken several measures for revival of tourism sector which have borne fruit as domestic tourist footfall has broken past records. Tourists are enjoying in Gulmarg, Srinagar, Pahalgam, Patnitop, Sanasar, Natha Top, Sonmarg and Doodhpathri.
The department is emphasising on highlight the 75-mesmerising lesser-known destinations which were recently launched by the Hon’ble Union Home Minister during his visit to the valley. The tourism department is focusing on Pune as a traditional market for J&K Tourism and the promotional campaign in Pune is aimed at inviting more and more travellers to visit J&K and enjoy not only the beauty but also the rich hospitality of the UT.
The Officers attending the Roadshow from the Jammu & Kashmir Tourism include:
Dr. G. N. Itto – Director Tourism Kashmir
Mr. Waseem Raja – Additional secretary Tourism
Mr. Vivekanand Rai – Director Tourism Jammu
Mr. Bashir Ahmad Wani – Tourist Officer, J&K Tourism Mumbai
The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir is a great tourist destination. While Jammu is famous for spiritual and heritage tourism, the picturesque and enchanting, Kashmir is cradled high in the lofty green Himalayas and hailed all over the world for its incredible natural beauty. Surrounded by mountain peaks, lush green valleys, glistening lakes, temples, forts, spectacular gardens, arts and crafts, it has inspired poets through centuries. Add to this, the charms of flavourful Kashmiri cuisine and apples and walnuts from the lush orchards surrounding it.
In winter, Kashmir takes on a white glow, covered in soft snow and skiers making a beeline for its famous slopes. And in summer, as the snow melts, and the flowers in the meadows bloom, it resembles an artist’s canvas.
Meanwhile, Jammu lies on the banks of the pristine Tapi river. It is dotted with hundreds of temples. From the popular Hindu pilgrimage of Mata Vaishno Devi, which is located nearby, to scores of religious places set in picturesque surroundings, Jammu is the truly called ‘city of temples’.
With such a great diversity in tourism products and destinations, J&K is truly a complete destination for any tourist.


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Exchange Server: The Road Ahead
We’re approaching the one-year anniversary of the release of Exchange Server 2013. This is traditionally the time when people start asking questions like:
When is Service Pack 1 coming?
What’s the timeline for the next Exchange Server release?
What are you cooking up for the next version of Exchange?
This time around, we’re also hearing a few customers ask:
Will there be another version of Exchange Server?
We hope the answer to that question is obvious, but we wanted to go on record to make sure no one is confused. Here are the facts:
- The Exchange engineering team is hard at work developing the next version of Exchange.
- We expect the next on-premises version to be released according to our traditional release cadence (2-3 years after the previous version).
- Microsoft has no plans to stop delivering on-premises releases of Exchange.
It’s true that customers are shifting their Exchange deployments from on-premises to the cloud, and it’s true that we are investing heavily in Office 365. We’re fans of Office 365 because we’ve seen that when customers run email in our cloud, they save money, they get larger mailboxes, and they get faster access to our latest innovations. IT admins spend less time maintaining servers and more time lighting up features that make users happy. Running Office 365 also brings us real-world experience that helps us build a better on-premises product.
Review the complete blog at https://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2013/11/13/exchange-server-the-road-ahead.aspx
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Big companies in the palm oil sector are entirely responsible in making sure that their palm oil supply, especially from independent farmers, is legal and produced in a sustainable way, environmental watchdog Eyes on the Forest (EoF) said.
In a report entitled “Enough is Enough” released last month, EoF said that it found Indonesia’s top four palm oil producers, better known as the “Big 4” – GAR, Musim Mas, RGE, and Wilmar – had purchased, often repeatedly, from mills that have been flagged as having often dealt in illegal palm oil.
“Large companies such as the Big 4 must have strong filters up to plantation level so that their supply of FFB (Fresh Fruit Bunch) can be traceable from this early phase and avoid getting supplies that are illegals or unsustainable,” Afdhal Mahyudin, who spoke representing EoF, told The Palm Scribe.
He also said that companies should strive to minimize the role of independent agents, agents whom he said tended to take any supply of FFB without a strong screening process to weed out illegal and unsustainable supplies.
“Firm actions against certain independent agents need to be applied because EoF sees that the big supply demand from the Big 4 is making these things (sustainability of supply) ignored,” Mahyuddin added.
The EoF reports said that Big 4 companies relied heavily on external suppliers to fill the demand of their processing and trading facilities, as current refining capacities exceeded the FFB and Crude Palm Oil volumes that comply with government regulations and with the company’s own zero deforestation policies.
Besides agents, companies also often bought from independent mills that accepted supplies from the agents.
“The majority of the world’s palm oil supplies may thus be tainted by FFB illegally grown in some of the last remaining habitats of critically endangered species like tigers, elephants, and orangutan and on flammable, carbon-rich peatlands in Sumatra,” Eof said in its report.
Only strict identification and segregation at the source of FFB from unknown third parties, often traded by agents, can reduce the contamination.
Mahyuddin said that buyers should not penalize the big palm oil companies by boycotting their products but instead should exert pressure on them and the other suppliers to meet the sustainability criteria for their supply.
“Pressure on the Big 4 can be on the implementation of their sustainable palm oil commitment, and this must be transparent, the progress they have achieved should be reported to buyers and the RSPO as the institution deemed credible,” Mahyuddin said.
He was referring to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) which was established in 2004 with the objective of promoting the growth and use of sustainable oil palm products through credible global standards and engagement of stakeholders.
Mahyuddin also said that civil society organizations could also help by monitoring the progress and phases achieved by the Big 4 in meeting their commitments.
“The possibility of a boycott remains but it would be much better if both sides seek a solution, including through tight monitoring by civil society organizations, including EoF,” he said.
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The national call to export more intensifies as Barclays’ research shows that 50% of exporting manufacturers hit growth limits in the UK in five years and say they wish they’d started exporting sooner.
Barclays is recommending manufacturers work harder on their exporting strategy, as new research shows that 56% of UK manufacturers hit the limit to the growth they can achieve by trading only within the UK in under just five years in business.
Surveying 500 UK businesses that export, including 100 manufacturers, the research tips for those companies who only have domestic markets and are unsure about whether they should start trading internationally.
Forty-four per cent of manufacturers said they found the experience of trading internationally to be as easy as they had hoped, or even easier than they had expected. Half of manufacturers who already export say they wish they’d started sooner.
When looking at barriers for not exporting sooner, 52% of manufacturers said finding contacts for potential customers and partners had been their chief concern. Meanwhile, 32% of those who said they wish they’d started exporting sooner cited at least one psychological reason for not doing so, including that they ‘didn’t know where to start’, thought it would be ‘too complicated’, ‘didn’t think it would work’ or ‘didn’t think to do it.’
As to destinations, only 27% of manufacturers would choose Brazil, Russia, India or China in their top five countries if they started to export again. Based on their experiences, 75% would choose somewhere in Europe in their top five places of where to begin.
The top two key factors cited which made manufacturers start exporting and attracting overseas customers were increasing or changing their products and services which were better suited to other markets (49%) and in order to grow their businesses (46%).
And what advice would these exporting firms give to other manufacturers thinking of exporting? These included regularly liaising with customers and export agents (31%), knowing the most effective transport methods (28%) and taking a phased approach to new markets (23%).
The research showed that despite the successes of exporting, often it was not well planned. Mike Rigby, head of manufacturing, transport and logistics at Barclays said: “What is clear from this research is that manufacturers find exporting to be a very positive experience, often in the absence of much planning. Under a third of manufacturers (31%) reported that they had a formal plan together when they moved into exporting.
“If such a large number of manufacturers are experiencing the benefits of exporting on this kind of reactive basis, imagine what could be achieved if they had a comprehensive plan in place on how to best achieve growth?”


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Wed, 02 Oct 2019 13:49:09 GMT
The North Face changed the future of the outerwear industry today with the unveiling of FUTURELIGHTTM jackets, pants, and bibs in its Summit SeriesTM, Steep SeriesTM and Flight SeriesTM collections. Developed using innovative nanospinning technology, FUTURELIGHT will offer first of its kind breathable, waterproof protection.
The concept for FUTURELIGHT was born in the mountains out of specific requests from The North Face global athlete team looking for increased performance and breathability in their waterproof gear. Determined to reset the expectation that waterproof product is uncomfortable, heavy and stuffy, The North Face commenced a multi-year journey to create a waterproof fabric that’s not only soft, light, flexible and comfortable – but also durable and sustainably designed. After three years of research, product development and extensive lab and field testing, The North Face is proud to introduce the first apparel made from the brand’s proprietary, FUTURELIGHT fabric.
FUTURELIGHT Jackets, Pants and Bibs will be available exclusively on thenorthface.com, The North Face stores and key retailers beginning October 1.
“Product innovation, pushing the boundaries and having the courage to disrupt have been a part of The North Face DNA since our company was founded over 50 years ago,” Scott Mellin, global general manager of Mountain Sports at The North Face said. “For far too long, we have been forced to adapt to our clothing and environment. With the introduction of FUTURELIGHT, we are finally offering clothing that adapts to our needs. The introduction of this fabric is a pivotal moment for our brand, for the future of the apparel industry, and for consumers who will no longer need to sacrifice comfort or air permeability for waterproof protection.”
Wear the Future
The nanospinning process used to create FUTURELIGHT fabric has allowed the brand to add unmatched air permeability into the membrane of a fabric for the first time. The process creates nano-level holes, allowing for incredible porosity while maintaining total waterproofness, letting air move through the material and provide more venting than ever before.
Nanospinning also gives The North Face designers the ability to adjust weight, stretch, breathability, durability, construction (knit or woven), and texture during the manufacturing process to match both athletes’ and consumers’ end-use, activity or environment. Designers can customise the fabric for specific usage, for example, by increasing breathability in garments for aerobic pursuits or increasing protection for harsh, wet climates. The ability to adjust these factors in fabric construction and manufacturing is pushing the limits of innovation in apparel, equipment and accessories.
“We are starting with jackets and outdoor apparel, but we won’t stop there,” Mellin said. “FUTURELIGHT can theoretically make anything breathable, waterproof and for the first time - comfortable. This technology is paving the way for the future of technical fabrics and provides endless possibilities across The North Face product categories.”
With the launch of FUTURELIGHT, The North Face is also aiming to deliver industry-leading sustainability practices through its new fabric creation process. These advances have allowed the brand to responsibly create three-layer garments with face and backer layers made up of 90 percent recycled materials.
Athlete Tested, Expedition Proven
FUTURELIGHT has been tested extensively for more than 400 continuous days by 15 members of the brand’s global athlete team, proven through use in the highest peaks and harshest environments, including the Himalayas’ Lhotse and Everest, in temperatures ranging from -50 degrees F to 60 degrees F.
While testing FUTURELIGHT The North Face team alpinist, Jim Morrison climbed, and skied three 8000 Meter peaks 2018, including Everest, Cho Oyu and the world’s first descent of Lhotse Couilor with his partner Hilaree Nelson.
“During the past two years, our world class team of climbers, skiers, alpinists, snowboarders and trail runners has been rigorously testing FUTURELIGHT across every discipline to prove this technology in varying weather conditions and climates all over the world,” Nelson, The North Face athlete team captain, said. “In all my years in the mountains, I’ve never experienced a product that moved and performed as well as FUTURELIGHT. It is creating a new paradigm for what I expect out of a waterproof material.”
Beyond The North Face athletes and internal testing labs, the brand worked with third-party independent experts including UL, a world-renowned safety science organisation, to push the limit of the FUTURELIGHT fabric. UL tests waterproofing for the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), an organisation that certifies first responder gear for firefighters, EMS and hazmat responders.
“The launch of FUTURELIGHT is about more than a fabric technology or a single jacket, it is about a new paradigm in clothing and protection,” said Steve Lesnard, vice president of marketing at The North Face. “We are redefining the expectations around weather protection and our campaign is designed to demonstrate the benefits and new possibilities that this technology will enable.”
The North Face worked with agency of record Sid Lee, Los Angeles to develop the campaign for the brand’s most anticipated product launch to-date. FUTURELIGHT apparel is brought to life through a campaign film and imagery featuring several world-class athletes including The North Face Team Captain and ski-mountaineer Hilaree Nelson, snowboarder Leslie Pelosi, climber Jimmy Chin and runner Coree Woltering.
The brand is hosting a celebratory launch event on Oct. 1 in New York City that will experientially bring the benefits of FUTURELIGHT technology to life through art installations and will feature a performance by Grammy Award-winning producer and songwriter Mura Masa. The New York event will be open to the public. RSVP required.view more - Creative
Categories: Outdoor Wear, Clothing and FashionSid Lee, Wed, 02 Oct 2019 13:49:09 GMT


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The iPhone 7S may not be due out until later this year, but we are already hearing a number of rumors about Apple’s next flagships. The latest rumblings characterize the iPhone 7S and iPhone 7S Plus as the follow-ups to the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, respectively. Rumors hint that these 7S models will be mid-range alternatives to a rumored top-of-the-line iPhone 8.
It’s unclear how the naming will work or if we will get three new iPhones instead of two. If you want to read about the rumored high-end OLED iPhone with a curved screen and other game-changing tech, check out our iPhone 8 news post.
Here’s everything we know so far about the new iPhone 7S and 7S Plus models coming in September 2017.
We’ve long expected the iPhone 7s to show up at Apple’s normal mid-to-late September event, however, new reports suggest that perhaps we’ll see the device a little earlier. According to a research note from BlueFin research that was picked up by Barron’s, Apple is ramping up production of the next iPhone (which it refers to as the iPhone 8, but could instead be called the iPhone 7s) a little earlier than usual.
While the beginning of production is reportedly scheduled for June, which is a little earlier than usual, the report notes this doesn’t mean Apple will release the phone sooner.
Design: Water resistant and new colors
Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends
The iPhone 7 was the first device in the iPhone family that could be submerged up to a meter underwater for 30 minutes. But rumor has it that Apple’s going to take it a step further with the next iPhones, ramping up the IP rating from IP67 to IP68 and putting it on par with the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge.
The rumor comes from the Korea Herald, which cites “multiple sources.”
Most people will hardly notice a difference, to be fair. The IP68-rating allows submersion up to about 5 feet for 30 minutes, a minor improvement over the 3.3 depth against which IP67-certified devices are protected.
The iPhone 7S models may feature a familiar design. According to Cowen and Company analyst Timothy Arcuri, the mid-range iPhones will serve as upgrades to the existing iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.
They’ll likely sport LCD screens instead of the OLED technology rumored for the iPhone 8, Arcuri says, and eschew the high-end iPhone’s “wraparound” design in favor of the current crop’s familiar flat display. In an effort to keep costs down, the iPhone 7S models probably won’t look like the iPhone 8, which is rumored to have hidden the fingerprint sensor, FaceTime camera, infrared module, and earpiece embedded within the touchscreen.
The iPhone 7S and iPhone 7S Plus may ship in a new color. The jet black iPhone was a huge hit for the iPhone 7 despite the $100 premium, and according to recent rumors, Apple may well do the same thing with the iPhone 7S models. According to the Japanese Apple blog Macotakara, the new color’s red.
A red iPhone would be a pretty big deal for Apple, which has traditionally stuck with more subdued colors like whites, blacks, and grays. A red addition to the lineup would be a bold choice.
A new rumor suggests the next iPhones will feature dual vertical cameras, likely with functionality similar to the cameras on the existing iPhone 7 Plus. The iPhones models will reportedly be able to shoot in portrait orientation and take advantage of the dual lens system.
Japanese blog Mac Otakara, citing an unnamed Taiwanese supplier, suggests dual cameras will be a part of the upcoming iPhone lineup. They’re rumored to be arranged in a vertical configuration as opposed to the current horizontal layout on the 7 Plus.
According to a report from The Korea Economic Daily, Apple is collaborating with LG to create a dual-camera module that would allow for 3D photographing. This would certainly make sense, as LG is already the company behind the iPhone 7 Plus camera. While Apple previously patented 3D-object and gesture recognition, it’s unclear whether the upcoming iPhone will bring these patents to life.
Specs: A11 processor
Every year, Apple upgrades the processor in its new iPhone. The iPhone 7S and 7S Plus will likely get the new A11 chip, which DigiTimes reports will use a 10nm manufacturing process. The chip should be even faster than the A10 Fusion processor, which has been heralded by critics as the best mobile phone processor. The iPhone 7S is likely to be even more powerful. We have no new info on the amount of RAM or storage configurations, but it’s safe to assume that we’ll see 32GB, 128GB, and 256GB storage options for the iPhone 7S and 7S Plus.
We have no new info on the amount of RAM or storage configurations, but it’s safe to assume that we’ll see 32GB, 128GB, and 256GB storage options for the iPhone 7S and 7S Plus. Battery capacity is also a mystery, though some reports say that at least the high-end iPhone 8 may have wireless charging.
Name: iPhone 7S vs. iPhone 8
|Specs||iPhone 7S/7S Plus||iPhone 8/8Plus|
|Charging||Standard lightning||Lightning and Wireless Charging|
|Design||Similar to iPhone 7/7 Plus||No bezel, no home button, radical change|
|Camera||Dual-camera on some models||Dual-camera on some models|
Typically, Apple launches an S model every other year. Initially, rumors believed the next iPhones would be named the iPhone 7S and iPhone 7S Plus. Then, rumors came in that Apple would skip the S model and jump to the iPhone 8 name. At this point, reports seem to indicate that we’ll see three models in 2017. There will be more modest updates on the iPhone 7S and 7S Plus models, but the iPhone 8 will be a big jump up in design and technology. You can read all about the iPhone 8 here.
According to the Motley Fool, the iPhone 7S lineup may include the standard iPhone 7S with a 4.7-inch display and the iPhone 7S Plus with a 5.5-inch display. The high-end iPhone 8 will likely arrive at the same time, rumors suggest.
Noted KGI Securities Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has seconded the rumor. Kuo writes that Apple’s iPhone 7S lineup will feature iPhones with screens measuring 4.7 inches and 5.5 inches diagonally. He also suggests that Apple may experiment with either glass, ceramic, or plastic backs on the iPhone 7S.
In his latest report, Kuo suggested that the 4.7-inch iPhone 7S will serve as a mid-range or perhaps even low-end iPhone. And he said that the iPhone 7S models could account for between 30 and 35 percent of new iPhone shipments in 2017.
Release date and Price: Probably September
Apple traditionally launches the iPhone every year in September. So far, that seems likely to happen yet again in 2017. We have no information on a specific launch or release date yet. The price is also unknown.
Article Source: Apple iPhone 7S and 7S Plus rumors and news


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The joy of savoring a chilled beverage while listening to your most-liked band on a warm day is unparalleled. However, stadium and festival prices for the same often touch the sky.
Audience members who attended Blur’s performance at Wembley noted that the pricing for even the most inexpensive option, beer pints, were a staggering £8.
At a time when the cost of living crisis has skyrocketed everything, concert-goers are increasingly challenging the Wembley administrators about the costs.
At the Blur concert, visitors could walk to the bar during the two-hour session of the band and buy a pint of Budweiser for a hefty £7.85, or a Magners Cider for £7.75.
It’s not going unnoticed that the cost of drinks at gigs has been going through the roof, with Glastonbury’s pricing getting lambasted online by irate concert-goers.
It creates a sticky situation as attendees are prohibited from carrying their drinks to the venue, forcing them to ring up bills they might not afford at present.
Most venues, including Wembley, prohibit patrons from bringing their food, drinks or alcohol, even if it’s a sealed bottle of water or soft drink.
Wembley mentions, ‘clear empty plastic bottles 500ml or less’ are allowed, making it possible for fans to refill water from taps around the stadium.
If you forget your water bottle, don’t fret. Wembley will sell you 500ml of water for a staggering £3.20.
Drinks inside arenas have always been costly, but these prices are roughly double than what you’d pay outside.
As expected, other beverages were priced just as exorbitantly with a glass of wine close to £10, a 330ml can of Jack Daniels at £8 and a 250ml of Captain Morgan going for £7.50.
It’s not just Blur’s fans witnessing these prices, many are expressing their frustration on Twitter at the event organisers.
‘Is Wembley stadium okay with having these as the only drinks at the bar? Vodka and coke 🤢🤢 £7.50 for a £1.50 can,’ vented one individual.
On June 17, a fan tweeted: ‘Looking forward to the Pet Shop Boys concert tonight at the Wembley Arena … which is exciting!
‘What’s not exciting are the drink prices. £7.15 for a 330ml can of Heineken , £16.25 for a double Gordon’s gin & mixer.
‘I don’t usually attend many gigs but this feels like daylight robbery.’
Another remarked: ‘I was at Wembley Arena on Saturday and I swear it was more expensive there! Drinks are shockingly overpriced at these places.’


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Milaha provides end-to-end supply chain solutions
In an exclusive interview with The Edge’s Aparajita Mukherjee, HE Sheikh Ali bin Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani, chairman and managing director of Milaha, a company that provides maritime and logistics solutions, talks about the company’s business focus, the evolution that it has been through since it was set up in 1957 and the prospects of the company in the next three years.
At the helm of Qatar’s oldest shareholding company that reported a net profit of QAR1.049 billion for financial year 2014, HE Sheikh Ali bin Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani, chairman and managing director of Milaha, has wide-ranging and diverse professional experience across a number of sectors and state entities. He started off his career at the Qatari Ministry of Finance as a financial analyst with the Investment Bureau and later went on to become the manager of the Bureau’s direct investments as it transitioned to what is known today as the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA).
Speaking about his career span at Milaha, Sheikh Al Thani says, “Since my appointment in 2009, I have overseen the merger of Qatar’s top three maritime service providers – namely Qatar Navigation, Qatar Shipping and Halul Offshore – into Milaha, a diversified maritime transport and logistics company. I am also currently a director at QIA and also vice chairman of the board of directors of the Housing Bank for Trade and Finance and a board member at United Arab Shipping Company.”
Milaha provides synchronised maritime and logistics solutions – simplifying the complex links in the international chain of commerce. What does it exactly entail?
Explaining the business focus, Sheikh Al Thani says that Milaha’s success is based on the unity of and synergies amongst its various strategic business units, all working together for the good of the company and its stakeholders, community, and, of course, the environment. He continues, “The diversity of our capabilities allows us to handle multiple and, in some cases, most aspects of our customers’ logistics requirements, thus allowing them to focus on their core business, to grow and to reach new markets.”
Detailing the success factors of the company, Sheikh Ali adds, “With our solid regional presence and strong partnerships across the world, we are able to guarantee our customers a hassle-free offering that encompasses the entire complicated process of shipping and logistics for both oil and gas, as well as other sectors.” Milaha’s services runs the gamut of marine transport and services, from ports management to land transportation to warehousing.
“We have proven our ability to meet strict deadlines, quickly adapt to changes in requirements, expand our asset base, and train our manpower to ensure our customers’ peace of mind when doing business with us,” adds Sheikh Al Thani.
Tied to ensuring business facilitation with customers, is Milaha’s avowed philosophy of adding new destinations, based on customer needs.
“Milaha is a service provider and wherever our clients require us to go, we are willing to invest in our offshore marine services business, the maritime transport arm, or the logistics division to be able to cater to our customers. We follow opportunities and where our clients need our service,” says Sheikh Al Thani.
“We have proven our ability to meet strict deadlines, quickly adapt to changes, expand our asset base, [and] train manpower to ensure our customers’ peace of mind when doing business with us.”
Commenting on Milaha’s current destinations, Sheikh Al Thani says that Milaha vessels “are going to the United States, Europe, and Asia. But if any of our clients need us to go to Latin America, then that is where we are going”.
Among its international business partners, Sheikh Al Thani mentions Shell and British Petroleum. Among its domestic clients, Sheikh Al Thani mentions Milaha’s “very close and special business relations with Qatar Petroleum, Qatargas, apart from Qatar Petrochemical Company (QAPCO), Qatar Fertiliser Company (QAFCO), Qatar Steel, Qatar Chemical and Petrochemical Marketing and Distribution Company (Muntajat)”, to name some of the prominent local Qatari clients Milaha has.
Muntajat signed a two-year agreement with Milaha to transport petrochemicals exports from Qatar, covering the containerised exports of polymers and melamine from Mesaieed to key hub ports in the region, from where major international shipping lines will carry these exports to their final destinations worldwide.
Is Milaha a preferred service provider for all state-owned entities such as Muntajat?
Sheikh Al Thani is categorical when he says, “While we are a Qatari company, we are not state-owned and although we have a strong working relationship with Muntajat and other government and semi-government entities, business is business at the end of the day. A deal such as this would not have been attainable were it not for our proven track record in providing the high quality services they require at a very competitive cost.”
The journey from 1957 to 2015
Milaha was founded in 1957, as the Qatar National Navigation & Transport Company, as the first shipping agent in the country. From its inception in 1957 until today, Milaha has become one of the largest and most diversified maritime and logistics companies in the Middle East. Its operations now range from ocean transport and offshore marine support services, to third-party logistics and ancillary solutions.
Commenting on its consolidation and strategic transformation, Sheikh Al Thani says, “We have been evolving and adapting ever since we started off in 1957. Not only did we change, but the dynamics in global trade also changed rapidly – deadlines became shorter, supply chains became more dispersed and complicated, and there was an increasing need for a solution-based approach that would simplify logistics for our customers.”
He adds, “I can safely say that not only did we evolve with the market, but also anticipated customer interest and requirements and strove to achieve the highest levels of customer satisfaction in the process.”
Describing the years of consolidation, Sheikh Al Thani says that the years had their ups and downs but Milaha weathered the downs and learned from them to become one of the region’s leading players in the maritime and logistics services sector adding, “All this would not have been possible without the support of Qatar’s government and its key industrial players as well as the contribution of our colleagues at Milaha who demonstrated and continue to demonstrate a great degree of professionalism, dynamism and flexibility during the various stages the company went through.”
Talking about Milaha’s business model, what factors have shaped the company into what it is as a brand and what are the key strengths?
In light of its diverse portfolio, Milaha is, more than others, subject to multiple external challenges, says Sheikh Al Thani, adding, “The recent years have been plagued with economic uncertainty, which we have fortunately overcome and, in the process, become even stronger. Diversifying our exposure across a number of areas has certainly contributed to this strength. We also believe that one of our key strengths is our location in Qatar, one of the world’s leading economies, coupled with our vast knowledge of the region with its economic trends, markets, and people.”
However, says Sheikh Al Thani, the ability to live and exercise its core values on a daily basis and not just on paper is what drives Milaha. Singling out the factors that have contributed to making what Milaha is today, Sheikh Al Thani says, “Over the years, the company has shown its stakeholders, customers and community the highest level of integrity by always delivering on its promises. It has cultivated the responsibility as part of one global society and achieved excellence by seeking to be the best in the business.”
In the opinion of Sheikh Al Thani, Milaha also has an ingrained belief that the customer’s success is its success and that its employees are the company’s most valuable asset.
Business portfolio and performance
Milaha’s business interest spans diverse sectors: from maritime and logistics to capital to gas, to petrochem to trading to offshore. What is the unifying vision that keeps all of these businesses under one umbrella?
According to Sheikh Al Thani, it is customer satisfaction that binds these units along with a shared set of values and beliefs that each business unit is working for the good of the whole which includes, in addition to Milaha’s customers, its stakeholders and society. He continues, “The success of one unit contributes to the success of Milaha and the failure of one unit is a failure of Milaha. With that in mind, all our units are deeply committed to doing our very best with each and every client.”
With this business philosophy, Milaha’s operating revenues increased by 14 percent in 2014 to QAR 2.6 billion from
QAR 2.3 billion in 2013 . The operating profit for 2014 is QAR648 million compared to QAR644 million in 2013 and earnings per share of QAR9.23 (this was QAR8.36 in 2013).
Commenting on their performance, Sheikh Al Thani says, “We have continued to build on 2013’s record results, and this is due to the solid foundation we have in place.”
In the opinion of Sheikh Al Thani, 2015 promises to be an interesting year. He adds that though global trends in energy prices and demand growth are leading to volatility in many of the sectors in which Milaha participates, and there is a great deal of uncertainty as a result, “we are still optimistic about 2015, and we will, of course, seek to sustain our growth trajectory”. Sheikh Al Thani is confident that Qatar will continue to grow and invest in its long-term vision, which directly benefits the local business activities. “We also have an incredibly strong balance sheet, and our financial strength gives us the ability to take advantage of market conditions and explore new opportunities, whether through organic growth, new partnerships or acquisitions.”
Given the growth that Qatar has seen and will likely see in the coming three years, in terms of gross domestic product growth and sustenance (if not improvement in the rates of growth), what new business prospects does Milaha foresee in the next three years?
“Qatar’s economic future is bright and that will definitely have a positive impact on us. We have built strong foundations that will help us move forward, not just in Qatar, but on a regional and global level. Capitalising on our strong local and regional presence and our solid financial status, we will continue to seek new opportunities to achieve our mission of becoming a globally recognised player in the shipping and maritime services sector while, at the same time, strengthening our other already well-positioned core businesses.”


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Apple said Monday that it sold more than 2 million iPhone 5s in China in their first three days of availability, setting a record for that market.
IPhone 5, which launched in China on Friday, will be available in more than 100 countries by the end of December.
The phone first went on sale on Sept. 21 in the U.S., Germany, France, Japan and five other countries, with more than 5 million of the phones sold in the first three days.
That sales tally also set a record, but only beat last year’s iPhone 4S launch by a small margin, falling short of some analysts’ expectations. Apple shares hit an all-time high of $705.07 that day, but in the months since the stock has plunged about 28 percent.
Also on Sunday, Citi analyst Glen Yeung cut his rating for the Cupertino, Calif.-based company to “Neutral” from “Buy,” questioning the strength of iPhone 5 demand and saying that it’s unlikely Apple shares will rally any time soon.
Apple Inc. shares fell $6.85 to $502.94 in premarket trading Monday.
More breaking news
- FCC downplays debt, greenlights Cablevision sale to Altice
- Cuomo: N. Carolina’s HB2 is ‘undeniably illegal’
- Altice pledges broadband for low-income customers
- Smaller stores, more mixed-use sites in LI’s retail future
- Priciest home sales in Manhasset
- Average US rate on 30-year mortgages falls to 3.61 percent
- FDA brings e-cigarettes under federal authority
- Applications for US jobless aid climb, but still near lows
- Consumer watchdog proposes ban on some arbitration clauses
- Change is in the works for Humana ACA exchange participation


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In a recent letter addressed to the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association, the FDA said that it was responding to calls from pressure groups to ensure the safety of all cosmetic ingredients.
The FDA advised all cosmetics manufacturers it intends to enforce a rule that all labels contain the statement: 'Warning - the safety of this product has not been determined.'
"You should know that FDA intends to consider taking compliance action, where appropriate, regarding cosmetic products that contain ingredients that we determine have not been shown to be safe," the letter said.
The requirement stems from a 67-year-old law requiring companies to label any products containing ingredients that have not been publicly tested for safety.
The letter also referred to a petition from the Environmental Working Group (EWG), an independent lobby group, which claims around 99 per cent of ingredients in cosmetics products currently sold in the US have not been publicly assessed for safety.
WWG conducted the study using 7,500 personal care products, including leading brands from all the major cosmetics manufacturers, including L'Oreal, Elizabeth Arden, Proctor & Gamble and Palmolive-Colgate. Its findings concluded that one third of all the products contained ingredients known to be cancer-causing, while 70 per contained potentially harmful impurities.
The study also reveals a list of cosmetic products that passed the safety tests, including Burberry men's cologne and Cetathil Gentle Skin Cleanser.
"When risky chemicals are used in cosmetics, the stakes are high. These compounds are not trace contaminants. They are the base ingredients of the product, just as flour is an ingredient in bread," and EWG statement said.
"Scientists find common cosmetic ingredients in human tissues, like industrial plasticizers called phthalates in urine, preservatives called parabens in breast tumor tissue, and persistent fragrance components like musk xylene in human fat. Do the levels at which they are found pose risks? Those studies have not been done. They are not required."
Lobby groups such as EWG would like to see regulations fall in line with those currently in place in the European Union, where prior testing of all cosmetics ingredients is currently required by law.
The move could prove serious for the world's largest cosmetics and personal care market, currently valued at $40 billion. Safety labels would inevitably hit sales, but equally the cost of implementing a comprehensive testing system would be immense for manufacturers.
Similar moves by the FDA to regulate the pharmaceutical industry in the US have seriously impacted the industry recently by limiting the availability of over-the-counter drugs.


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Responding to a growing demand for DuPont Kevlar brand products, DuPont Protection Technologies said it has restored all Kevlar manufacturing facilities to operate at full capacity.
The company also announced that Kevlar prices will be increasing.
A new Kevlar plant is being built at DuPont’s Cooper River site in South Carolina, and the company said the facility will enable production of higher performing, next-generation fibers.
“We are seeing greater demand for current and more advanced products across markets including automotive, aerospace, personal protection and many industrial applications,” said Dale Outhous, the global marketing director for DuPont Protection Technologies.
The new Kevlar facility, an investment exceeding $500 million, is expected to be fully operational by the beginning of 2012. It will incorporate the latest fiber production technology and enable the business to deliver higher performing products.
“While these investments are crucial to speed innovation and provide additional services for customers and development partners, the business also must retain its financial health for continued growth,” Outhous said.
DuPont told its Kevlar customers that effective this month, or as contracts permit, the business will increase pricing for Kevlar products by an average 5 percent globally.


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By Heather Somerville
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] said on Monday it has acquired electric bike service JUMP Bikes, in a deal that further consolidates the crowded bike-sharing industry and allows Uber to offer U.S. passengers an alternative to cars.
Uber said in a statement it had entered an agreement to buy JUMP, but an Uber spokeswoman declined to disclose the terms of the deal. JUMP is a dockless electric bike service that has rolled out in San Francisco, where it has a small presence with 250 bikes, and Washington, DC. About 100 JUMP employees will join Uber, the spokeswoman said.
Uber Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi said the acquisition furthers Uber's goal of offering "the fastest or most affordable way to get where you're going, whether that’s in an Uber, on a bike, on the subway, or more."
(Reporting by Heather Somerville; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)


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Posted: February 10th,2009 | By: doug.herman
Last week, Weber Shandwick, a leading global PR firm and a unit of The Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG), issued its research survey, Risky Business: Reputations OnlineTM, in cooperation with the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). The report assesses the various types of reputation sabotage that exist and which ones are most feared by corporate execs. Not surprisingly executives in Asia, as well as around the world, are most concerned with “rogue” emails and disgruntled employees contributing to online negative stories.
Source: Risky Business: Reputations Online, Weber Shandwick
Executives surveyed in Asia were more concerned by threats against their corporations (74%) than were global executives in general (67%).
“Our research found online reputation management (ORM) officially making it to the top of leadership agendas as executives recognise that new challenges can topple even carefully-built corporate reputations. As the internet’s influence sweeps through corporate corridors, cubicles and boardrooms, the research identifies the reputation-building and reputation-busting forces online and offline dramatically shaping corporate reputations and what can be done about them.”
– Tim Sutton, chairman of Weber Shandwick, Asia Pacific
So what can be done to minimize erosion of a long-developed corporate image? Well there is no simple answer. As a PR consultant reputation protection is a major service offered by Weber Shandwick. It provides counsel for organisations in any part of the world to reduce Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: 10+3
tags: Internet Reputation Management
, Jupiter Research
, public relations
, Reputation Defender
, search results
, weber shandwick
Posted: February 9th,2009 | By: jeremy
Not necessarily scientific, but worth reviewing if you are in the content business. Infamous site The Pirate Bay is tracked visually on a map, noting the number of users and where they are coming from. It changes, but last I checked, the symbol for China had gone from ‘hot’ flames to ‘nuclear’ – China was accounting for 25% of users. That’s a lot of downloads…
Check it in almost real time here.
With almost 1.3 mm users, and more than 300k per minute from China, there’s a lot of potential copyright violations happening here…. No one else inthe East Asia region even comes close – even the U.S. is responsible for half that at about 13%. This was a snapshot in time of course, but the sheer volume speaks to the importance of China in the peer to peer sharing food chain. What isn’t clear, of course, is what’s being shared….
Posted: February 6th,2009 | By: Jeff
The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) recently conducted research focused on urban consumers– which includes nearly half of the countries population and three-quarters of its Internet users. The study included 3,700 people from 12 cities in 11 provinces. The China Business Review published a synopsis of the study in the January-February issue.
Here are the key findings from the study:
• China includes the most mobile phone (616 million) and Internet users (253 million)
• In 2007, there were 86 millions new mobile phone users and 40 million Internet user
• From 2004-07 Internet users CAGR was 22%
• In 2007, there were 100,00 new users each day acquired Internet service.
• Internet users in China average 2.7 hours online ever day [surpassing Japan (1.2); South Korea (2.0); and Germany (2.0)]
• For the country as a whole, that is over 680 hours per day
Given the massive growth in users, online services are increasing also. Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: China
, Boston Consulting Group
, China Business Review
, instant messaging
, Internet Users
, mobile phone
Posted: February 5th,2009 | By: doug.herman
According to the Nielsen Company’s recently released Malaysia Mobile Insights Report demand for mobile internet access is set to surge. Over half a million surveyed mobile users professed that this would be a ‘must-have’ technology feature for their next mobile phone.
“Generally it is males who tend to score higher on wanting emerging technology features in their handsets, but when it comes to mobile Internet, both genders are equal. This shows that this emerging technology is fast gaining mainstream acceptance.”
– Vinod Paul, Consumer Research Director of The Nielsen Company, Malaysia
The Nielsen survey interviews over 3,000 mobile subscribers aged 15 years and above, both locals and foreigners (including migrant workers) in rural and urban centers across Peninsula and East Malaysia from September to November 2008. It gauges the mobile landscape in terms of brand performance, reported market share, purchasing habits, reported usage and preference as well as satisfaction and loyalty for Telco operators and mobile handset devices.
We’ll bring you more news on the burgeoning Malaysian mobile market as we find them.
Posted: February 5th,2009 | By: jeremy
According to eMarketer and ClickForensics latest report, click fraud is on the rise. Fraudulent clicks are now estimated at 17.1% for the last quarter for the industry as a whole. On the on PPC advertising networks that charge by the click – and on the other side, earn publishers a slice of the pie – like Google and Yahoo!, the number climbed to 28.2% – that’s one in four clicks fraudulent. Not good news if you are an advertiser. Traffic from Botnets accounted for almost a third of this at more than 31% of fraudulent clicks. (Botnets are networks of virus infected computers controlled by the bad guys….)
ClickForensics' Click Fraud Index Heat Map
Outside the U.S., China ranked third in click fraud orgination with 2.3%. A dubious honor but far behind the rate of the U.S, Canada and Germany. These stats, however, are potentially misleading. ClickForensics focuses onthe top 3 networks: Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. It’s not clear what the rate would be if Baidu and other Chinese search engines were singled out but you can bet it would be much higher…
eMarketer Summary of Click Fraud countries


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Recently, China's fashion capital - Wenzhou, a sudden down fashion storm, caused a sensation in the fashion industry, and this storm is the leading leader in Wenzhou women's brand, the domestic women's dark horse - XFY women's brand.
Mention the first down jacket people must be fat, fat, swollen, rarely associated with the fashion, but for the stylish 80,90 cold winter later to buy a desirable down jacket really become a problem, the reason Is that at present the majority of the existing domestic down jacket brand wear are fat, bloated, fashion is far below the degree of warmth, little brand of down jacket is young and stylish, in sharp contrast to the online shopping platform stylish look good There are countless down jackets, but the particularity of the down feets keeps consumers from walking because the majority of consumers think that the quality of their down jackets is not guaranteed. Black heart cashmere, cotton filling cashmere, down cashmere, and fabrics are not the three defenses that make consumers prohibitive.
The XFY women are aimed at the domestic fashion blanket blanket, the company's products for a precise positioning - down jacket fashion experts, and achieve each winter down jacket series and the United States and South Korea to achieve synchronized trend, the product fully meets the aesthetic needs of 80,90 . The completion of this plan is the first step in the domestic women's industry set a precedent for the futures system into the spot system. According to the introduction of XFY brand design director Ms. Jin, at present, the domestic women's clothing industry basically adopts the futures system, that is, the order system. The product is released in the early summer of each year in the autumn and winter products, while the early winter of the year releases the second year's spring and summer products. Very unscientific, is the womens clothing industry pathology, because with the development of the times, the popularity of the network and the high-speed transmission of information, the concept of consumers are constantly changing, the past is the brand guide customers to buy, and now customers hold the phone picture To ask the brand has no demand for her models, the customer is not just a change in spending habits, but consumer behavior is changing.
Brand from active to passive, so we have to make reforms, who will be eliminated by the post-consumer era, which is why in recent years the domestic textile industry downturn, while Europe and the United States, South Korea, these foreign brands instead of domestic sales Reasons for record highs. According to Ms. Jin, XFY down jacket this year, only in September began to design than the same industry half a year late, but the design of the product to achieve synchronization with the trend of Europe and the United States and South Korea, because of this, recently held XFY "Beauty" 2015 Winter feather new conference caused by the favorable thermal agents and the industry's sensation.
Xiaobian learned from the top of the brand, XFY brand has completely canceled the order system, the spot system to achieve each quarter of the product are closely follow the trend of Europe, the United States and South Korea at the same time, with product advantages, increase marketing and advertising efforts to become a domestic fashion Down jacket leading brand. Xiaobian at the same time from the front to love the fashionable 80,90 MM bring good news, XFY brand down jacket has been one after another in the major XFY shopping malls counters and stores on the goods, the weather getting cold, MM who can be the first time Buy your favorite down jacket.
However, MM like online shopping may be a small regret, according to Xiao Bian from XFY marketing department to get the news, XFY brand down jacket only a small part of the money will be on the line in XFY Lynx official flagship store, because First, fearing peer copy The second is the core business of the XFY brand is still dominated by offline store counters, but according to the brand executives disclosed that in 2016 XFY online e-commerce business will expand the category to meet some of the offline channels do not cover the needs of the region consumers .
Silk Accessory,Silk Head Scarf,Silk Sleep Scrunchie,Travel Sleep Eyemask
Nantong Otter Textile , https://www.ottertextile.com


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This Week On The TC Gadgets Podcast: Misfit, Android Wear, And Samsung Earnings
See the original posting on TechCrunch
After taking a week off for the holidays (sorry about that), we’re back to chat up the latest news in the Gadgets world. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much.
That said, Samsung had some disappointing earnings, and Misfit forged a partnership with Beddit to get into the platform space. Plus, we simply can’t help ourselves from talking about smart watches, including the latest… Read More


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Frequent visitors to the site will already know that Electronic Beats is presenting a very special Scooter concert in Hamburg on December 5th. Taking place at Uebel & Gefährlich, the show is set to be one of their most intimate dates they’ve ever played. Naturally, tickets are in high demand but for everyone unable to attend we’re excited to announce that we will be hosting a live video stream of Scooter’s Hamburg performance here at electronicbeats.net. This follows on from highly successful live streams from the Pet Shop Boys’ showcase last September, this year’s EB Festival Cologne and Chilly Gonzales’ appearance in Vienna earlier this year and we guarantee, it’s the next best thing to being there.
For those who you who want to be in with a chance of being there in person, please be aware that the only way to get tickets is to enter a raffle to win them. Just fill in the form below. In the meantime, check out what happened when Modeselektor met H.P. Baxxter in this interview (parts one, two and three), H.P. Baxxter’s Style Icon piece and (soon to be ex-Scooter member) Rick Jordan’s Depeche Moment. Want more Scooter goodies? EB editor-in-chief Max Dax has collaborated with the band to bring you the book, Scooter: Always Hardcore, published on November 18th—we will be publishing exclusive extracts in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.
**UPDATE: This competition is now closed, and winners will be informed on Monday, November 25th.
Published October 29, 2013.


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Although Intel's 64-bit "Nocona" deployment brought announcements from several OEMs, a "theoretical" bug was found that affects its supporting chip sets.
Server OEMs this week helped complete the second phase of Intel's 64-bit "Nocona" deployment, although the launch was marred by a bug that affected the supporting chip sets.
Intel first launched the Nocona chip in June as a workstation processor. Nocona was the first Intel chip to use Intel's 64-bit extensions, dubbed the "EM64T" technology. In the past week, vendors including Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and IBM have rolled out new multiprocessor servers.


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“The Department of Employment [DOE] has been tasked with looking into the employment of people beyond the retirement age,” Labour Minister Suchart Chomklin stated, including that 1,007 folks above 60 had been given jobs within the 2021 fiscal yr.
Citing a latest survey overlaying 9,408 seniors with the potential to work, he stated, 76 per cent wished to be self-employed, 15 per cent wished full-time jobs, whereas 9 per cent have been okay with both.
He stated the highest 5 jobs that seniors have been supplied have been manufacturing employees, housekeepers, safety personnel, teaching employees and drivers.
The barista, branch manager, customer service representatives, and cook are among the 148 new posts that have been made available, he continued. There are 199 other self-employment alternatives as well, including selling trees online and creating fortunate stone necklaces.
"The department recently cooperated with the Business Services Alliance to hire 100 seniors and disabled persons to work as customer service staff at Café Amazon for Chance,” he said.
Source - The Star